Thursday, July 12, 2007

My friend and I took our boys to Brookfield Zoo today and had a nice time. The weather was perfect; it was a great day to visit the zoo.

Evidently, many other people felt the same way we did, because there were a lot of people there, mostly moms and their children. It's been a while since I was around a huge group of parents with their little ones, and I enjoyed seeing all the babies and toddlers (although my friend and I agreed the moms are looking younger all the time, LOL).

One thing that caught my eye was the way the moms related to their children. A few moms just stood quietly while their children looked at the animals and the exhibits. Their children talked to each other, but not to their moms.

Many more moms were deeply engrossed in chatting with each other, or on their cell phones, while their children enjoyed the zoo. There was little or no conversation between these moms and their children.

Then there were the moms who actively participated in the zoo visit, calling out things like "Tyler, can you see the bear peeking out of the cave?" or "How many camels can you count?"

If you're a homeschooler, I'm guessing you probably fall into the third group. Am I right?

Mostly, yeah. But this week? My husband has been out of town and I am exhausted. I would have been the mom on the bench going, "Mommy's tired, can't you just go look at the pretty animals and give mommy 5 minutes of silence?" And then weeping softly...

OK maybe not, but I did ask them to go play on the playground last night at church and let me talk to a grown up for 15 minutes :)

Homeschoolers for over 20 years.....

and we're still at it with our two youngest, dd17 and dsds15. I'm the author of several books, including the curriculum Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers. I call my Web site and newsletter "The Imperfect Homeschooler" because I've learned that we don't have to be perfect moms and teachers to homeschool our children successfully; God uses us despite our imperfections.